URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — A Champaign County man is behind bars after he was accused of threatening Julia Rietz, the State’s Attorney, and the Champaign County Courthouse.
Prosecutors said Glenn Jones of Pesotum has a history of mental illnesses and has been in jail before. This time, he’s accused of making several social media posts directed at Rietz.
They were all made on Facebook at the end of August, tagging her professional and personal pages. Some posts he’s accused of making said she owes him money for wrongly putting him in jail. Others said he knows where she lives and he will come with a lynch mob.
There are three charges:
- Two for threatening a public official
- One for falsely making a terrorist threat
The charges were spelled out in court on Tuesday.
“[Counts one and two] claims you knowingly delivered, directly or indirectly to Julia Rietz, a public official, communication containing a threat that placed her — that official — in reasonable apprehension of immediate or future bodily harm,” Judge Brett Olmstead told Jones while in court.
He’s referring to posts like these, where prosecutors said Jones used a fake name on Facebook to threaten Rietz.
“He claims she protected child molesters, and now the truth is coming out. He stated that ‘They owe me a new house, they owe me a new life, they put me somewhere that got me raped,'” said Mike Havera with the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office. “In another post, he put up an image of a man with the text below stating, ‘Don’t put me in a position where I have to show you how cold my heart can get.'”
Other posts target the courthouse.
“In one post, he wrote, quoting, ‘Apparently, the only way we’ll ever stop Champaign County State’s Attorney from protecting child molesters is to use heavy explosives to terminate the entire courthouse. That’s where the child molesters are weekdays,'” Havera described.
Joyce Ragle, Pesotum’s Village President, said she’s been dealing with Jones at his property for years. He’s been living out of his truck and now, his home is set to be demolished.
That’s where Champaign County deputies arrested Jones on Saturday around 1 a.m.
“He initially denied responsibility for the posts, but then did admit to making them,” Havera said.
Jones’s lawyer defended his character, saying he’s studying to be a pastor, has a fiancé and has cancer.
He cannot have any contact with Rietz and must also take a mental health assessment and follow those recommendations.
If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in jail.
This isn’t Jones’ first time in court. In 2021, he pleaded guilty to harassing his neighbor. In the plea agreement, charges of sexually abusing a five-year-old boy in 1988 were dropped.
